Why we swim explained. I found this book to be transformative. As a distance lap swimmer, who is known to be in the pool for 'hours' this book brought poetic value to the meditative process of swimming for pleasure, for exercise, for healing.
Bonnie Tsui takes us on a world tour-an adventure, as we ecplore swimming stories from Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club, Suddam Hussein's palace pool, modern day Japanese Samurai swimmers, Benjamin Frankiln's daily dip, Icelandic fishermen, Michael Phelps, Fishpeople, Lynne Cox, Diana Nyad, Kim Chambers to Moby Dick.
The Author summarizes the health benefits as follows:
"Average reduction in blood pressure after land based exercise training is five to deven points. Swimming reduces blood pressure by an average of nine points-in the blood pressure world, that is significant. It also decreases arterial stiffness, a condition in which the walls of your arteries become less elastic and add strain to the heart muscle."
Beyond the medicinal value, as Ms. Tsui points out so eloquently, swimming is a meditative, enriching experience that is both calming and soothing. As your arms circle and swing, your body glides through the water, we feel light, suspended, time slows down in the best way, and we feel as though we have more of it.
The Author writes with purpose on the holoistic value of swimming in esoteric terms that is refreshing and contemplative. She describes swimming as an "antidote for the existential anxiety" which we all suffer. Unlike other forms of exercise, you have to immerse yourself in water-literally-which challenges all of the senses to wake up, to 'feel' the water, as it surrounds you.
Oliver Sachs, a well known Neuroscientist describes swimming as 'sea dreaming' which is a state between dreaming and being fully awake. The rhythm of swimming lulls your body, which well trained, seems to keep moving on its own, and your brain is allowed to go wherever it wants. In 2015, Sachs was 82, and dying of Cancer. He still swam a mile a day, for as long as he could, writing until the end.
"Submersion creates internal quiet. Sometimes swimming to blankness is the goal. We enter a meditative state induced by counting laps and observe the subtle play of light as the son moves across the lanes. We slip from thought to thought, and there's a momentary nothingness. In that brief interlude, we are entirely liberated from the weight of thinking."
I personally view swimming as a restorative form of exercise. I always enjoy walking and biking, but swimming, unlike other forms of exercise, allows you to enjoy a meditative, calming flow, rather than the pounding, forceful motions needed to take that next step or bike that last mile. Beyond this, once we are in the meditative flow, we also have the opportunity to pause, take a deep breath, and swim that last lap.
"We dare to jump so we can see something new. And sometimes, we do it to recover a sense of what we once had."
Other Books by Bonnie Tsui:
American Chinatown 2010
A Leaky Tent 2007
She Went to the Field 2006
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